Bound to Please

An Extraordinary One-volume Literary Education : Essays on Great Writers and Their Books

Among the most enjoyable of literary critics, Michael Dirda combines erudition with enthusiasm, a taste for the outr#65533; and the forgotten, and a playful, understated wit. Like George Orwell or Gore Vidal, Dirda delights in popular genres, such as the detective novel and the ghost story, without neglecting the deeper satisfactions of sometimes-overlooked classics. This new work features scores of Dirda's most engaging essays, never previously collected in book form, all intended to introduce readers to wonderful writers, from the anecdotal Herodotus and James Boswell to the sensuous Colette and Steven Millhauser to such European masters as Joseph Roth, Flann O'Brien, and Penelope Fitzgerald. With his trademark enthusiasm, Dirda also explores The Arabian Nights, the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, the crime novels of Chester Himes and K. C. Constantine, and the worlds of Tarzan, Cormac McCarthy, and Proust. Bound to Please is a glorious celebration of just how much fun reading can be.

Comment

Who dared give this book two and a half stars?! What yardstick are they using, and may I see what they regard as 5-star authorship?
This happens to be a large tome (the only grounds for downgrading its quality: such heft!) about dozens and dozens of writers and books, seen through a collection of fine reviews and prefaces.
The only reason I'd fault it, aside from for the effort to heave this book into one's lap, is for the lack of an index at the back, to peruse its contents according to one's own interests. Still, the random approach does inspire reading one might not otherwise undertake. So what's not to like?
A brilliant book for any fan of good authors and writing.